Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Being home alone for Christmas (meaning just the four of us) I had lots of time to knit.

First off, I was able to finish the cardigan and I am thrilled with it! I took time to check for gauge (this lesson was learned the hard way) and double and triple checked the pattern to make sure I was doing it right. The end result is hands down the best fitting item I have ever knit.

Once I was done with the cardigan I tried to find something I could knit with yarn from the stash. After all, it was the holidays and (yarn) stores were closed. I found the pattern for the owl hat on ravelry and just had to knit it. Is is not the greatest hat you have ever seen?

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Mark over at "Our simple lives" has really inspired me with his decluttering efforts. His goal was to get rid of 365 items in as many days. Well, I'm not sure we are going to be able to reach that goal, but I'm going to give it my best shot.

I didn't want to spread all this stuff out and take individual photos, but all together we got rid of 134 items!! This includes the basketball goal out front (no photo, but trust me, we did a happy dance once it was gone) and several things that were broken and needed to be thrown away. (Just to clear this up, we are not getting rid of the quilt on the bed, I just put all the items on the bed to take the photo.)

Monday, December 19, 2011

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

As busy as these last few days have been, I always find time to squeeze in some knitting and reading. Keeps me sane... ;-)

Yes, I'm reading another yarn harlot book, what can I say, I just love them. Then knitting project I'm working on (if you can call casting on "working") is a "Nimbus" cardigan. I'm using cadena yarn from KnitPicks in the color peat.

The last finished project are these socks. A friend had asked me if I would knit socks for her if she brought me the yarn. How can I say no to that? Anyway, she came with one skein black and one skein red - had to get creative to use them evenly.
Mein letztes Projekt waren diese Socken fuer eine Freundin. Sie hatte mich gefragt, ob ich ein Paar fuer sie stricken wuerde, wenn sie die Wolle kauft. Wie kann ich dazu nein sagen? Sie kam dann mit einem Knaeuel schwarz und einem in rot an - musste also kreativ damit werden.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Last year a few friends and I went on this tour and since we enjoyed it so much, decided to do it again this year. It was a pleasant surprise to find out we would be touring different homes this year. As last year, we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but let me tell you, the homes were stunning!

Last year it was a lot easier to get into the homes, probably because they were expecting rain. This year we had to wait around 15 Minutes just to get in. So worth it though.
Letztes Jahr kamen wir ohne Wartezeit in die Haeuser, wahrscheinlich weil Regen in der Wettervorhersage war. Dieses Jahr standen wir Schlange und mussten ca. 15 Minuten warten bevor wir rein durften. War es aber total wert.

One house had these all along the fence. I thought it was a fantastic idea and my plan is to make a bunch for our house for next year.

Hannah decided to buy some tins, bake cookies and give them to some of her friends and her favorite teacher. These are the latest cookies she baked - "no roll sugar cookies". There were so many of them, I took a bunch to work with me and they were gone by the time I went home.
Hannah hatte beschlossen kleine Dosen zu kaufen, Plaetzchen zu backen und sie an einige Freunde und ihren Lieblingslehrer zu verschenken. Dies sind die letzten Plaetzchen die sie gebacken hat - "no roll sugar cookies". Das Rezept hat ganz viele Plaetzchen ergeben, so das ich sogar eine Dose voll mit auf die Arbeit nehmen konnte. Bis ich wieder nach hause bin, war die Dose leer.

The view from my window at work. See all the snow flurries we had? It was too warm for the snow to stick, but I took the kids out in it just to run around for a while. Once the first one fell, we went back inside. ;-)
Dies ist die Aussicht von meinem Fenster auf der Arbeit. Seht ihr die vielen Schneeflocken? Es war zu warm und der Schnee ist nicht liegen geblieben, aber ich bin mit den Kindern eine Weile raus, so das sie im "Schnee" herum rennen konnten. Als der erste dann gefallen ist, sind wir wieder rein. :-)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

A friend asked me recently if I decorated the house for Christmas yet... Since Christmas is my favorite time of the year, the answer is a resounding "YES". The only things missing are the lights outside and the big tree in the living room (maybe this if not then definitely next weekend).

This is the little "food/kitchen" tree in the dining room. All the ornaments on the tree are either kitchen related (little spatulas, cookie cutters, whisks...) or edible (felted cupcakes, crocheted pies, felted mushrooms...) Now that I have this little tree, I'm always on the lookout for more decorations for it. Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find things...

This little feather tree is standing in the hallway on the old sewing machine. The sunlight fell through the window above the door when I took this picture and the "feathery" shadows are from the palm tree that stands next to the sewing machine. I thought it looked as if the tree was shining.

Hannah decorated the tree in her room with just a few ornaments.
Hannah hat den Baum in ihrem Zimmer nur mit ein paar Ornamenten geschmueckt.

Nadia decorated her tree with every ornament she owns. (They get a new one every year in their advent calenders.)
Nadia hat ihren Baum mit all den Ornamenten geschmueckt die sie besitzt. (Sie bekommen jedes Jahr ein neues Ornament in ihren Adventskalendern.)

About Me

I'm 46 years old and have been married to my hubby for 26 years. We have two wonderful girls, ages 16 and 18. I started this blog to stay in touch with our family and friends in Germany and here in the US. It's a little glimpse into our daily lives...